neilworms

Getting rid of the one non-Levine lot is going to have a huge impact on the neighborhood. I hope the Levines do sell eventually or 3CDC cuts some kind of deal with them.

Speaking of Chicago - we are a bit miffed at the quality loss since Kroger took over Marino's - the main issue being a perceived decline in customer service, though other issues have been brought up: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/kroger-ruining-marianos-absolutely More details: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/consumer-products/kroger-ruining-marianos This is the closest Chicago equivalent to the OTR Kroger - its the flagship Mariano's in the West Loop note how a lot of recent reviews are much lower than the average: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mariano's/@41.8811292,-87.6496833,17z/data=!4m10!1m2!2m1!1smarianos+near+me!3m6!1s0x0:0xa091a815340a92d5!8m2!3d41.8811289!4d-87.6474948!9m1!1b1 I hadn't been in this one in a while, but I was kind of wondering if they got rid of the guy who would play piano live everyday - I just don't see Kroger doing that kind of perk... All and all I'm happy for you guys getting a proper urban grocery store, let me give you a toast to its success :).

Everything about this music venue was stupid to begin with. Leave it to MEMI to make the wrong decision ?

I'd recommend little Osaka or Sawtelle Japantown if you want little Tokyo but a bit more youth oriented and hip. Its also about a 15 min walk from the Expo line (oh I wish the stop was actaully on Sawtelle instead of Sepulveda). Good to check out on the way to or from Santa Monica.

We make do, urban living is like breathing air here in Chicago, people get it. I can't say the same about many Cincinnatian's perspective on the issue. Also we have both quiet neighborhoods and loud ones, pick which ones you want to live in but they are mostly very walkable.

Yeah the only reason why the Banks got to where it is now is due to Mallory actually having a few closed door meetings to get them on track. Without his leadership the thing is falling into chaos again. Also MEMI has a terrible track record - they've canceled multiple events they got their grubby hands on after ruining them (MPMF, Tall Stacks, Jammin on Main) why give them a music venue that wastes valuable riverfront neighborhood space? I know people have respect for the Symphony and what not but more people need to criticize this group for being badly managed and full of people with terrible ideas. IMO they should be working on making the Emery what it should be if they want a concert venue - its one of the best in the whole country and yet is going to be used just for Children's theater, WTF??!!!

Pretty impressed - it seems like they are bringing the urban food hall concept (think food court but run by modern hipsters/yuppies) that's pretty popular, though with Mariano having a say in Kroger, they are in good hands. I'm looking forward to going down there and seeing this open.

Oh wow, I was going to reference it for my cities skylines project to get subway related stuff down (though your book is generally an even better resource).

This was posted on an urbanist group I follow on facebook and its relevant to this discussion: https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/03/12/mcmain-street-main-street?fbclid=IwAR3pHaYWi0y3H8kmEzji9w5YjaalDrtd6tfetYogzNqmr0EzUeffPUKXUaI

I'm back and I've done a ton of stuff with Porkopolis which is my reimagining of a Cincinnati with better historic preservation, better transit etc. I've gotten a lot done with Northern Kentucky and mostly filled out the basin on the Cincy side. Let's open with my recreation of the Island Queen an old steamboat that ran to Coney Island - I actually made a route on the Ohio that went from downtown to Coney and downloaded an asset for a riverboat: Here's OTR / the west end from my version of the PNC Tower which is an NYC asset that's bigger than the Kansas City Power and light building I'm filling in for the Carew (someone really needs to model out Cincinnati assets for this game): The Kenyon Barr can be seen here: Newport and the Licking Riverside district - I did some funky stuff with the Central Bridge and on ramps to downtown / Newport streets to aid in traffic flow, but most other bridges are pretty similar to how they are IRL: Nice view of Newport with the L&N and C&O railroads in the background - I loosely based this off of old photographs of this spot: Pretty much what said view looks like IRL today: This is of the Newport Depot which shared both L&N and C&O train lines - the L&N I had to get a hack to make it wait in the yard above for clearence as this is the infamous single track rail that used to run up saratoga street: Saratoga street: Overhead of the same area: The L&N bridge as it was with traffic still on it Mt Adams in the background (I need to tweak the bridge heights a bit): My interpretation of the Licking riverside area in Covington: Downtown with a Wonky Roebling bridge (I need to fiddle around with procedural objects so I can turn the suspension bridge from Europe they have into something resembling the Roebling bridge its going to require some time but I think its possible!) I've been doing a ton to expand the heavy train system here's a view of the west end yards: looking west around liberty street (a few unwanted buildings snuck in there that I need to prune): Peebles Corner which is still kind of a work in progress at least the neighborhood beyond it: The part of Walnut hills with the tight streetgrid which was somewhat severed by I-71: Here's the highland route train line going through the tunnel that goes underneath McMillian I did make the train run in the middle of two small alleys - I wish I could find some pics of this: Dunaveck Square which I sort of embellished (this stretch of Pike was one of my favorites, though the new development kind of has ruined it to a degree as I wish nothing was torn down here besides the parking lot which in this world is a small train storage yard. In the background is the Covington L&N / C&O station - the only thing missing is the neoclassical waiting room which still exists but is now offices: Here is a view of the station with both express and local tracks in use (this is a bit glitchy as the only tracks that have this setup are station tracks) the slope could also be a bit more gentle here: I've yet to find pictures of it, but evidence suggests that there used to be a market here at park pl and greenup (I can't find info anywhere on it other than labels on maps that state market and how the buildings are fancier and all seem to face this "square" - here it is IRL: Here is my game version, for this part of town I used a lot of UK buildings (the US and UK weren't too far apart pre Civil War architecturally) and some somewhat out of place New England assets just to give the impression of this being a very old area - I just need more mansions to fill in between the townhouses and row houses: Bellevue from its station - IRL this was a lot more modest than it is in game - here I used an asset from a Melbourne Australia train station (IMO Melbourne is pretty contemporaneous with Cincinnati in terms of architecture - though its a bit fancier than Cincinnati - it was quite literally the richest city in the British Empire in the mid-late 1800s due to a massive gold rush) I used a lot of Bronx buildings as it allowed for narrow lot detached frame buildings that are pretty common in this part of town though not exactly the same: Here's the more modest real version: Another shot of Bellevue where the C&O goes below grade: Minus some of the further afield Cincy riverfront neighborhoods here is a view of what I've got done:

Cincinnati did used to have alleys like this, there actually is an old synogague in downtown by the aranoff that was converted into housing that sits in the alleyway.

I wouldn't be so sure of that, Frosted tips and nu metal fashion are pretty embarassing. First half of the early 2000s decade's fashion was as bad as its music. Guy Fieri is my generation's disco stu.

Your still not looking hard enough at Chicago, there are plenty of ethnic areas esp on the far north side and divey/old school food spots of all types sprinkled all over the city. You'd probably love Bridgeport or Jefferson Park to cite a few neighborhoods that don't fit what you are describing.

The loop is boring, good stuff is in the neighborhoods... too many touirsts don't venture out of it.

Very romantic choice lol.

Cincinnati is quite a bit less diverse than either Cleveland or esp Columbus. IMO the food scene in Columbus is a lot closer to Chicago's than Cincy's is. I can't vouch for Cleveland as I've not been there as much.

One final thing I'll add that if people are in say the entertainment or fashion industries they have no choice but to move to a handful of cities if they want to get a high paying job in their field. Anti Trust laws probably should be a thing invoked to keep that from happening and it would do a lot to make our country a lot less of winner and loser regions kind of place.

^-I found a really great circle of friends and feeling of community here in Chicago that I never had elsewhere so I'm not leaving and its not so expensive here that I cannot live (we are a relative bargin for the amenities you get here), but everyone's experiences is different. I like a world where change moves faster and people aren't afraid to try new things or meet new people. But yeah we are in agreement that's not for everyone and there are people here that yes would be just fine living in Ohio and maybe even happier for it.

Yeah I know lots of people exist like that out there, which is why I find it frustrating sometimes about the knee jerk reaction people in "cool cities" have against "uncool places". For a lot of people living in Ohio is fine, and they don't have to worry about paying as much rent either but the culture of the place they are in makes it seem like its a subhuman place (its not). LGBT and other minorities have more of a point here as culture can be more hostile to them in these regions, but IMO their reaction is overblown in this case, its not instant death.

Some of us like being able to eat food from all over the world and not be stuck in a culture that overly venerates TGIF Friday's and their ilk or states that x fast food restaurant in y town is the best fast food restaurant. I think that's a big difference between suburbs in Ohio vs the ones in Chicago the food options are significantly greater. Biggest difference culturally though is what's considered racist and culturally acceptable behavior around race due to the diversity of these places. (at least compared to SW Ohio, mileage may vary for people from Columbus or Cleveland). The later is part of the reason why republican leaning Chicago suburbs broke hard for Hilary when comparable places outside of Cincinnati still supported Trump.

I'd argue that the diversity leads to a huge amount of difference at least on a cultural level also having towns arranged around a commuter rail system that oftentimes are mini cities in their own right changes things. Though its not as sharp a difference as that between urban and suburban culture in general.

A lot of that insecurity IMO comes from the constant barrage of attacks from the GOP about crime in Chicago which while a problem doesn't top per capita lists.... These attacks btw are really more about Obama and delegitimizing him.

I was in Blue Ash. So yeah it was a diverse northern burb.

Yeah I've seen the same from New Urbanist Memes for Transit Oriented Teens the facebook group I was talking about - there were people there who thought that because they were LGBT or some other minority they would be instantly shot by bubbah and his shotgun if they even set foot outside of their bubble ?

Change the genre of music, and those kinds of stupid bars do exist in Chicago particularly in River North, though River North is pretty much tailor made for tourists or a certain kind of transplant who loves living a phony pretentious big city culture for like 2x the price of what you could get it for in other neighborhoods and 10x the bro-y-ness. It frequently tops surveys of most hated neighborhood in Chicago by Chicagoans even beating Wrigleyville.